Cursed
by Shadow of Midnight
Summary: Similar to Terrible Day. Will Neji ever tell anyone about his family? NejiTenLee friendship. Oneshot


The three young ninja trained in the sunlight

**Rewrite of Terrible Day, roughly the same idea. **

Cursed

The three young ninja trained in the sunlight. The girl, her brown hair up in two buns on either side of her head, was throwing weapons at a target seemingly impossibly far away yet every one hit the mark. One of the boys with a short bowl hair cut was repeatedly kicking a dummy. The other boy whose long black hair was tied back in a low ponytail sat with his eyes closed and had his face angled up to the sky. Lee paused for a moment from kicking the dummy to look over at Neji.

"Are we done training for today? I would think that you would want to train longer but perhaps now you have realized that fate cannot be fought?" the haughty and bitingly cold voice came from the other boy. He had not even opened his eyes or angled his head toward Lee. Lee ground his teeth, that Byakugan of Neji's was beginning to get on his nerves. But mainly he was angry about the reference to fate, that was what made him the angriest about the black haired boy. Every time they trained as a team Neji made a reference to fate and hinted that Lee was pathetic. Neji was better than Lee and they all knew that. Every time that the two of them fought, usually when Tenten and their teacher were not around, Lee found himself beaten. He glared at the other boy who smirked widely. Tenten paused momentarily from her training to walk to a point in between her two teammates.

"Lee, Neji, are you two fighting _again_? I thought last time would have fixed that. Come on, don't fight. I don't feel like cleaning you up again, Lee." Neji made a snorting sound in his throat. Lee clenched his teeth. Tenten walked back to her practice. "Lee, when did Master Guy say he would be back? Soon I hope. You two are angling for a fight and I really don't want to be a baby sitter all of my life."

"Nope, sorry. He'll be back in an hour and he wants to see us all training the whole time." He shot a malicious glance at Neji, "not resting or sleeping." Neji opened his pale eyes and deliberately got up. He walked toward Lee.

"I am training, you idiot. Byakugan requires this type of training and Master Guy knows that. And so do you." Tenten sighed dramatically and shrugged her shoulders. She looked reproachfully over at her two male teammates. Lee looked at the ground in embarrassment but Neji met her gaze with defiance hidden just below the surface of his apparently blank, white eyes.

"Okay, I'm gonna go get a drink. Don't fight while I'm gone. Or when I get back for that matter. If I take too long tell Master Guy what I'm doing. Alright?" Lee nodded and smiled at her. Neji walked back to the tree and sat back down. He made a few hand signs that appeared to put great strain on his face because the veins near his eyes tensed. Tenten walked off in the direction of the village.

"I'm going to train over there." Lee said loudly. Neji's only response was a curt nod. Lee deliberately walked to outside the range of Neji's Byakugan. He was really curious what the other boy did when he was alone. He was almost hoping that his flawless self-control would crack a bit so Lee could be sure he was a person. He never showed emotions other than contempt around Lee. He crouched behind a bush and peered out at the boy. He knew very well the range of the Byakugan's incredible sight. Lee also knew how long it would take Tenten to get a drink and get back. The village was 15 minutes away for Neji and Tenten but only five minutes for him if he ran. It would take her five minutes to get a drink. He could count on 35 minutes before she would return.

Neji sat perfectly still and didn't move a muscle. For 10 minutes he stayed motionless and then he moved. His posture relaxed a bit and he moved a hand to his forehead over which he wore his headband. Lee stifled an excited gasp.

Neji slipped the headband off his forehead and over his hair. When he straightened up again Lee gasped more loudly. There was a sign etched in teal on Neji's forehead! He had never seen the headband off before; Neji had never mentioned the sign to any one. Neji stiffened; he had heard Lee moving around in the bushes. He opened his eyes and glared at Lee who gulped. He had not taken any trouble to hide himself; he had been more concerned with hiding from the Byakugan. To a regular eye he was in plain sight.

"Well, so you've been skulking in the bushes this whole time, huh?" his voice quivered with uncontrolled rage. "Spying on me and for what reason?" he deliberately walked to Lee and stood over the other. He still had the headband in his hand and he was gripping it with unmistakable fury. Lee could not look in his white eyes; he stared instead at his forehead emblazoned with that strange teal sign.

"I wanted to understand you. You always seem so withdrawn. I never knew that you'd have something like that to hide, honestly. I didn't know you'd get so angry." Mentally he apologized for the lie, it was his only chance. "Where did you get that mark?" That was evidently the wrong question, Neji shook with anger. He turned and walked slowly back to the tree he had been leaning against. He slumped down against it and ran his fingers across the mark. Lee overcame his fear to walk over to Neji. Neji looked up, for once Lee saw the hint of a tear in the corner of one of his eyes.

"What do you want?" his voice sounded broken, "leave, now." For all his normal hatred of the black haired genius Lee couldn't bring himself to leave Neji when he was so upset. Also the prospect of getting some answers appealed to him. He sat down next to the other boy and looked quizzically at him. Neji turned his head away and pulled his knees into his chest. He looked like he was only just holding back tears.

Lee was worried now; he hadn't wanted to upset Neji. Now it looked like he was about to have a meltdown. But his curiosity got the better of him.

"So, where did you get that mark? Maybe telling some one will help, it always feels worse when it's bottled up inside of you and you don't let it out. Maybe it will help." Neji hesitated for a moment before launching into speech in the manner of someone throwing themselves off a cliff with out knowing or caring how deep the water below may be. His pale eyes sparkled with tears of unrestrained anger and sorrow in the early morning.

"I have always spoken of fate but do you know why? This is why." He pointed to the mark, "My father and Hinata-sama's father, Hiashi-sama, were twins. My father was younger by a matter of minutes. He was put into the Branch Family and all of his descendants also. This cursed mark which only the Branch Family bear represents "a bird in a cage". It is the mark of being tied down to a fate, of terror and submission, which you can never escape. The Branch Family is there to protect the Main Family. They are not considered as equals at all, only weapons." The raw anger and bitterness in his voice made Lee flinch back. But for the first time ever he felt something akin to pity for the other boy. Imagine being intended to just be a weapon. Neji continued speaking, his words coming quickly and bitterly. "I was still happy. I did not realize what the curse seal did to you." Lee looked curious.

"And… what does it do?" Neji sighed and rubbed the curse seal with his fingers.

"The purpose of the Branch Family is to protect the Main Family. If any member of the Main Family wants to they may activate the seal that only they know how to. Either it could torture me pitilessly without relenting until I was broken, bleeding and praying for death or it could kill me in an instant. There isn't a thing I could do to stop it. I would be completely at the mercy of who ever it was. No matter how hard I train I will never be able to stop it or lessen the pain." Lee sharply drew in his breath, "It would protect the secrets of the Byakugan if I was to die. It will only disappear when I die. I know this; I have seen things that you have never imagined. When I was only four I saw my uncle activate my father's seal, torture him, for no other reason other than that he was in the way. Now you understand why I speak of fate. You know nothing of fate. I am cursed, trapped like the caged bird this seal represents. I will never fly free. I will be alone forever.

"But the reason I am so angry is what happened to my father. I can never forgive the Main Family for his murder. You remember when the lightening country signed the agreement? Days later, in the middle of the night the Hyuuga heir was kidnapped, taken. Her father pursued the man and killed him. It was the leader of the lightening country." Lee gasped, "The man had come solely to try to steal the secrets of the Byakugan; that became obvious. But the terms of the treaty could not be violated. The lightning country demanded the body of Hiashi-sama and to save him the Main Family sent my father to his death instead. They were twins; identical except for the curse seal. War was averted and everyone was happy; what was my father compared with Hiashi-sama? Who wouldn't sacrifice him instead? Who wouldn't sacrifice the brother from the lower family? Wasn't the Branch Family only there to serve obediently until death? That is the destiny that I bear, that my father bore, until death is merciful and grants release. Every one is equal in death and in death alone." Again, Lee flinched back from the fury in his teammate's voice. Now the tears came and poured from the corners of Neji's pale white eyes. "Fate and destiny are decided at birth, there is nothing anyone can do about it. You could never understand what its like to be cursed and fated. To be trapped and caged, forever." Lee responded sympathetically.

"I know that I couldn't. But I can help you try to live with your pain. All you need is some hope." Neji shook his head. He pulled his legs tighter into his chest and pressed his eyes down on his knees. He shook, crying harder than Lee had ever seen someone cry. _Oh well,_ he thought, _I wanted to learn why and now he's sobbing. How can I explain that?_ Suddenly Lee heard a slight cracking of twigs. Neji heard it too and looked up at the other genin. Then Neji felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Tenten looking at him with tears in her eyes. She had been listening to them talking and had heard Neji explain his life.

"Neji, you're not alone. We care about you. Really we do, don't we Lee?" she looked at Lee who was looking at her over Neji. He nodded and patted the other boy on his other shoulder. "All you have to do is open up and let us care about you. That's all you have to do." Neji shook his head vigorously and teardrops flew onto the other kids.

"My fate was decided at birth. Love and friendship are not a part of it. I'll always be alone, always. No matter how much I used to dream of changing it I know I cannot." Another tear joined the ones dripping down Tenten's face. She hugged Neji hard and murmured quietly to him. Lee awkwardly patted him on the back.

The boy shook as Tenten rocked him back and forth gently while saying soothingly "Its alright. You'll be ok. Just get it all out, its ok to cry. No one will hurt you if you cry." Lee blinked his eyes hard to keep from crying himself. It was impossible for him to hold on to his hatred of Neji when he knew that his emotionless teammate had been through so much. He couldn't hate him when he was sobbing quietly as though his heart was breaking, onto Tenten's shoulder. He couldn't hate him when he knew that the condescending manner that he hated so much, was a defense mechanism to keep the pain he felt, inside and hidden away. Eventually Neji's sobs subsided and he began breathing hard, drawing deep breaths to calm himself down. His eyes, when he raised them to look at Lee were the opposite of the detached cold Neji that Lee was used to. They were red-rimmed and wet with salty tears.

"Sorry," he said with a flash of the regular Neji in his eyes, "this means nothing to you. My life means nothing to anyone. Leave me alone, I'll just be a minute and then we can go back to training and hating each other like this never happened, like you never saw this," his hand touched the curse seal, "like I never told you about my past. We can just go back to normal." Lee looked critically at Neji as he patted his back.

"Do you really think I can hate you after you told me all that? I'm not that heartless and you know it. We don't hate you and you mean a lot to both of us. Every one is what they make of themselves. Try it, you can have friends if you try hard." Neji sighed and smiled wanly at the two who were trying to comfort him.

"Thank you, both of you. I know I've been a bad teammate sometimes. I'll try to change, really I will." Tenten hugged him even harder and he squirmed to free himself. 'Tenten, I… can't… breathe, help!" Lee collapsed on the ground holding his sides laughing. Tenten released Neji and he gasped exaggeratedly hard.

"Oh yeah, Tenten?" Lee was curious, "why are you back so soon? I mean it takes you 35 minutes to get a drink from the village."

Tenten laughed, "About five minutes into my walk over I realized that you two were gonna fight and I came right back to see you asking Neji about the seal. I waited for a chance to interrupt but I was really curious too. So I watched you guys talking." Lee laughed,

"Then you saw Neji collapse into tears?" he chuckled, "that must have been a surprise, huh? Come on, Master Guy will be back in a few minutes, lets go train. Neji, your eyes look more of their normal white rather than this red or pink. Maybe he won't notice, if he does we'll just say we told you a joke that you found so funny that you started crying." Lee handed him the headband and Tenten deftly slipped over the boy's forehead for him. Tenten helped him up and he smiled. It was the first time Lee had ever seen Neji smile happily. Then they walked him over to where they had been training and, laughing, they picked up their training again.

From behind the bushes Might Guy watched them all hanging out together.

"They taught themselves teamwork better than I ever could have. Good job team." He smiled and stepped out to walk over to his students where they trained in the sunlight.


End file.
